the mousie with the mostest

In our house, that's currently Miss Minnie.  We are not a particularly mouse friendly household... and wish our under the stove visitor would find some new digs, but Raina is trying to soften our views on all things mousy by declaring Minnie her BFF.  So much so, that she's going as Minnie on Halloween.

Here she is in her first Minnie costume:  thrift store dress that's way too big, my old Disneyland ears, and (unseen) Minnie slippers.  At first I thought it was cute that she put this outfit together on her own and declared it her Halloween costume.  Then I decided it was a bit too ragamuffin for my liking, and that she'd probably be tripping over the dress the entire time we were out.  So take two...

I ordered this set from the Disney store.  Not as cheap as the first version - but I'm okay with that.  She looks pretty happy herself!


To add to the Minnie couture, I decided to make Raina a skirt that she can actually wear out in public at times when the full on costume is not going to happen!  I was going to use the Oliver and S Lazy Days Skirt Patter, but then I decided to be even more lazy and not use it.  :)  O looked at the pattern, saw that it was basically gathering two large rectangles and adding an elastic, and thought that was enough to go on.  I used a thicker elastic than I normally do in Raina's waistband, and I hope that passes her high standards for comfy clothing!!

The Minnie fabric is from Walmart, and we found it on our annual pilgrimage to Walmart last month.  The fabric is so cheap that I really just let Raina wander down the aisle and point stuff out to me that she liked.  Of course, that means we ended up with a cart full of Minnie, Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty, and Curious George.  This is the George fabric:

My instructions have been to turn it into either zippie jammies or a ball gown.  Hmmmm.....


More notes on our annual pilgrimage to Walmart....

I don't think it's really all that bad of a store, to be honest.  The one we go to has a newly renovated craft section, and a giant supermarket in it.  It also has a Dunkin Donuts and all the usual home/beauty/clothing/toy sections.  The problem lies in taking two cute kids along with me, a mommy who loves to shop.  We just can't make it out of there cheaply enough to go there often!  Of course, the same is true about Target, and we end up there fairly often.  Also, I let Raina wear her pj's and slippers to Walmart.  She wasn't feeling all that great, and she wasn't the only one there folloing that dress code. She was, however, definitely the cutest.  :)

Blogging mojo. (And a kid project)

I have a pocketful of excuses, and none of them seem legit enough.  Sometimes life happens.  In the end, that's what it all boils down to.  Blogging started to feel like another chore in my life, and that wasn't... isn't... what I want this blog to be.  So I started asking myself what I want from this blog.  What were my intentions when I started it?  I didn't want it to be a daily churn out of "look what I made!"  ...and that's kinda what I felt like it had evolved into.  I was sewing like crazy, writing too late, and losing steam.  I was linking my posts all over the interwebs, trying to get traffic and followers... and I ended up actually LOSING two followers.  Now, who knows why they really left.  It could have been lots of things.  But I took it personally, and it was the last straw.

So now I've taken a break, thought a lot, and I want to come back and be funny again.  When I started this blog, it wasn't all sewing projects.  It was cooking, kid things, and rants about life in my mommyhood.  So while I'll still show off things I made, I hope you'll still read my other posts, too!

Thanks for letting me take a break.  Now lets get this party started back up!

I don't think I ever wrote about this activity we did.  

It started off simple enough:  a pile of beads, and a bunch of pipe cleaners.  I was thinking fine motor skills mixed with craft time.  Pretty open ended.

and then, because why not, we added a big pile of feathers:

I'm not sure what I imagine Raina would do with this pile of goodies, but I didn't expect her to build a person and give it feather hair!  I helped with the mouth (chin?), but everything else was all miss Raina!  

Then, from the feathers, a question came up...

"WHY ARE THESE ALL PURPLE, BUT THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT?"

Aaaah, the question the art student and color lover in me has been waiting for!  I'm so looking forward a whole new chapter of color explorations stemming from this!  Do you think Home Depot will mind if I clear them out of paint samples this weekend??

Minnie Dress for my mini

It's safe to say:  this is my new favorite pattern.  I am already imagining fall versions of it:  made from corduroy and fleece and made to be layered over bright colored long sleeved shirts.  Raina loves it, too, and that's key.  She has some definite opinions when it comes to her clothing, and the number one factor is COMFORT.  The number two factor, as of late, seems to be that it is emblazoned with the face of a character she is on love with.

...Which is why this dress is made from Minnie Mouse fabric.  Nothing I would ever have picked out on my own, but I don't see things through the eyes of a 3 year old!  Last week, I dragged both of my smalls to a new fabric store I discovered.  The tall of the smalls (raina, that is!) walked through the front doors, took a look around, and sighed, "ANOTHER fabric store?"  To quell her disappointment about the fact that we were indeed at a fabric store and not an indoor trampoline park, I said, "But LOOK!  They hace lots of fun things!  Pink buttons!  Shiny purple fabric!  You can pick something out for a dress if you want!"  Her response?  "Where do they keep the princesses?"  :)

The minnie fabric is jersey knit, and was a compromise.  She picked out a few hideous prints that I vetoed - giant Care Bear faces,  Bratz, sparkly spandex... just to name a few.  It was down to Minnie Mouse and a pink cotton with cupcakes and donuts.  We finally settled on Minnie, and Miss Raina dragged the bolt up to the cutting table all on her own, shouting something about "awesome gowns" and "strong muscles!"  I love her so big.  So did the girl at the cutting table.  Her stories and sense of humor are pretty hard to resist.  We also made a stop at the button wall, where Raina picked out the pink bow buttons that adorn the bodice right below the straps.

I was slightly nervous about sewing this pattern with a knit.  I had the pink and white stripes in my stash already (60% off one day at JoAnn!  I bought 4 yards at that price!), and decided to just swallow the nervousness and get on with it.  It's a mouse dress for a 3 year old who doesn't even REALLY like to be dressed anyway.

Turns out, my timidness was not necessary!  It came together fairly easily, with some wonkiness here and there on the long straight lines, but not really anything to be ashamed of!  :)  It seems very comfortable, and it is most certainly covered in character faces.  WIN!

I did end up doing some unintended top stitching.  The bottoms of the straps, and across the top of the bodice in the back and front.  The jersey lays flatter when hanging if it's topstitched.

Here's what I discovered I really love about sewing with jersey:  inside seams don't really need to be finished!  The just roll right up!  Hurrah!

One thing I've forgotten to mention in my past posts about the knot dress:  I've made the bodice a lined bodice.  That means no visible inside seams.  Everything is tucked away, hidden, topstitched.  No itchies to be found!

There is a pair of ruffle pants in the works, but from a different pattern this time.  I am still in love with the ruffle pants pattern, but on Raina the 3T is just TOO wide for her skinny minny legs.  I know I can adjust them to make them narrower for her, but I haven't done it yet. (they work well on Luscious Lucca, though!)  In the meantime, I traced a pair of her current pants on the minnie fabric, and made ruffles from the pink and white stripe.  They aren't done yet, but should be soon.  Hopefully they pass the comfort test!  This is Raina, sittin comfy in her extra wides:

I feel like I'm back in high school, buying super wide leg pink pants at Hot Topic.  (Seriously.  I had, like, 4 pairs.  One was so wide, and had pockets so big, I could literally carry around an extra pair of shoes and all of my books without needing an extra bag.  Memories are scary.)

By the Seashore Knot Dress

Obvi, I made Lucca a knot dress.  I can't make a cute little garment for one kid and not make it for the other!  This fabric was bought with Lucca in mind... I though I might make her an Oliver and S Ice Cream Dress at one point... but never did.  Now I'm glad I was lazy, because this pattern suits it perfectly!  I really love that the tiny people playing at the beach are printed right side up AND upside down... no chance of sewing something on upside down!  I don't need to spend any more quality time with my seam ripper!

Some views of the dress, hanging pretty on my front door:

I used pretty simple coordintaing fabrics for the bodice and trim:  blue with white polka dots, and yellow with white polka dots.  I'm all for mixing patterns, but I really wanted the focus here to be on the beach party!  Having both other fabrics be polka dots, even though they are different colors, makes it bright and fun without being too distracting.

Of course, I made matching ruffle pants!  But, my friends, August in Boston means 90 degrees and a gagillion percent humidity, so my tiny model will not be wearing them for a while :)  

Outfit, complete:

Oh, these were both made from the same patterns as Raina's Rapunzel set in my last post.  Both patterns from Pink Poodle Bows on Etsy!

She pretty cute, even when I can't convince her to ham it up for the computer :).  (These are her 9 month pictures, taken 2 weeks late!)